


we can shatter just as fast as glass

by InvitingNonsenseWorld



Series: if we have to say goodbye, can we say hello again? [1]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Cats, Drug Addiction, Drug Use, Gen, Healing, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Prostitution, Klaus Hargreeves Needs A Hug, No Apocalypse, Overdosing, Panic Attacks, Protective Diego Hargreeves, References to Depression, Theft, but it's not very described
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-24
Updated: 2019-05-03
Packaged: 2020-01-24 03:50:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18563338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InvitingNonsenseWorld/pseuds/InvitingNonsenseWorld
Summary: “You accidentally adopted three cats?” Diego asked in disbelief.“Sort of. It’s nothing official, really. They’re sweethearts, you’ll love them. Always kept me company out at the streets.”Klaus didn’t say how they kept him from freezing more than a few times. He also avoided mentioning how they’re what kept him alive in the last few years. The cats and Ben, of course. Always Ben.Or, how because of some cats, the apocalypse was prevented and some of Klaus’ siblings find out about some worrying things that happened to him.





	1. walking down a road of broken glass

**Author's Note:**

> I have no control whatsoever, so here. I'll go back to finishing my other fic as soon as this one is done. It shouldn't take long, I imagine. Anyway, hope you all enjoy it!

It started with a freezing night on an unlucky day.

This wasn’t that uncommon. Klaus had spent his fair share of nights sleeping outside on the streets, be the weather cold or hot, dry or wet with rain. He was used to it, even if, yeah, when it was one of the coldest nights of the year and his clothes were slightly damp because of the storm earlier that day it fucking sucked. This day was just a bit harder than usual because he had spent most of the last two months hopping from one place straight to another, some short-time boyfriends and one-night stands and disillusioned dates giving him a warm place and a ceiling to sleep under.

This was fine, though.

He was used to it.

“This is a terrible idea, Klaus,” Ben said, leaning against the fire escape beside Klaus. “I can see you trembling.”

Klaus looked down at himself. His clothes weren’t suited for harsh low temperatures, but he had lost his warmer coat somewhere in the past few days and, at least, these looked good on him, so he shrugged. The comforting haze from a high was already settling in, so he pocketed his baggie of pills, satisfied, and rubbed his hands against his arms.

“Great to know you don’t need ghost-glasses, Ben. Those would be hard to come by. Unless there’s a ghosty store somewhere and you’ve been keeping that from me all this time. In which case,” Klaus gave Ben a disappointed look, “shame on you.”

Ben stared back unimpressed. “I’m serious. Do you want to freeze to death?”

A fleeting thought crossed Klaus’ mind, petulant and itching for attention, and, well, it wouldn’t be- no. Klaus pushed it to the back of his mind. “...Of course not!” He said shivering. “That’d be such a boring way to go.”

“Then why are you standing here without doing anything?”

“What else is there to do, Ben? My legs are tired.” He wasn’t up for searching someone tonight. He was comfortable in his numbness, and every fiber of himself protested against the idea of moving.

Klaus slid down the wall until he was sitting, and Ben crouched beside him. Klaus giggled, finding something funny in that.

“You could go to a shelter. Or a rehab center.”

Klaus laughed harder, and the sound was a bit too sharp. “It’s late, they’ll all be full, you know that, Benny. And ha, good try, but no. My rehab quota of the month is depleted.”

“You haven’t gone there this month yet,” Ben said with a sigh, but they both knew that was a futile argument. “Why don’t you at least go get your backpack? You have more clothes there.”

“Too tired,” Klaus said, pointing to his legs. “It’s too far away.”

Ben made a noise in frustration, driving guilt into Klaus’ chest. He covered it up by pulling his legs up and hugging them, chin resting against his knee and eyes fixing on the dumpster to his right. He waved his  _ GOOD BYE _ hand in dismissal in Ben’s direction when he began complaining about Klaus’ lack of cooperation.

There was no answer to that.

A spike of fear pierced Klaus, and his head snapped to the side, but Ben was still there, just sitting farther away to Klaus’ left and staring at the ground with a deep frown. It reminded Klaus of Diego and his brooding moments - maybe all the times they ended up spending with Diego in the past few months was rubbing off on Ben. They’d make a fabulous brooding duo.

Klaus thought about apologizing to Ben, but he gave up on the idea. He was too exhausted.

Relaxing and ignoring the guilt swarming in his chest, Klaus put his head on top of his knees. Within the haze in his mind, the cold wasn’t too much of a bother.

It was fine.

Sleep found him not long after.

 

 

 

When Klaus woke up the next morning, his fingers were strangely warm.

The reason for it became clear as soon as he opened his eyes and found himself lying on his side, back against a wall, and a cat curled up beside him. His hands disappeared somewhere underneath its grey fur, and the remnants of the paper bag Klaus had used to save up half a sandwich for later was destroyed and empty by its side.

Still groggy, Klaus was torn between being thankful and mad at it. He slipped a hand free, waking the cat up as an aftereffect and having it meow at him in displeasure, and checked his pockets for his baggie of pills. It was still there, intact.

Klaus whistled in relief. The cat was licking its fur, half of its attention on him, so Klaus settled for a reaction in the middle and shooed it away. It meowed at him again, and he hissed back at it.

It went away, but not before glancing at him again with piercing brown eyes. Klaus wondered if cats could gaze into a person’s soul because it seemed to be judging him thoroughly at the moment. Or maybe it was what was left of his high from the night before showing him things.

That was more probable.

Ben watched in amusement.

 

 

 

The next time Klaus saw the cat, it had a tabby friend tagging along.

It was another cold night, another day in which Klaus’ energy was nonexistent, and he just wanted to watch mold grow on an abandoned wooden board. Ben was furious at him, and Klaus, coming down from a high and already itching to get another pill, could only whisper “sorry” again and again while he made no move to get up and search for a warm place or food.

There were some remains of a few cracked biscuits inside his coat, and he watched as the cats approached him and pawed at his jacket until he gave it to them.

Klaus wondered if he looked so unimposing that they weren’t wary of getting close to him. That could be bad for Klaus in the long run.

Well, it wasn’t like he really cared at the moment.

He slept with the cats curled up against him that night, and the biting cold wasn’t too bad.

 

 

 

It was a while before Klaus saw any of the two cats. They weren’t that distinguishable, so maybe they had crossed paths sometime somewhere around the city, but there had been no more surprise visits when he was alone out in the streets.

The weather got warmer, and Klaus continued hopping from bed to bed, from bars to nightclubs, and from high to high. Ben continued by his side, ever patient, and still hopeful that Klaus would have a change of heart and decide to search for help.

It never failed to make Klaus guilty when he disappointed him all over again.

So when Klaus found the grey cat roaming through garbage, looking every bit as hungry as Klaus was, he stopped.

“Hey there,” he said. “Do you remember me? Hey.”

The cat looked up at him. It could be another cat, sure, but it looked the same, down to its tiny white feet that were now stained with dirt.

“Cats don’t talk, Klaus,” Ben said.

“Well, you talk, and to most people, you're just thin air, so.” Klaus shrugged. Ben rolled his eyes, but Klaus thought it was a good argument.

The cat didn’t answer him.

Yet, Klaus didn’t go away. He knew it was going to rain soon, and he had to get food before finding some of his newest friends and crashing together somewhere, but something made him hesitate.

A few minutes later, Klaus had his arms full of snacks and bread that were stolen from a convenience store not far from there. He left a long piece of bread in front of the cat, who had stopped its search in favor of curling up on the ground and nibbling on a chunk of - something.

Its eyes snapped up, and Klaus tried to give it a comforting smile as it stared at him. Ben mentioned something about it probably not understanding what his smile meant and that showing his teeth was a sign of aggression to some animals. That was undoubtedly just to be an ass because he was still bitter about Klaus’ last fling that left him with a hurting wrist and a bruise in his stomach after a discussion about something or other Klaus didn’t remember. Ben had been vehement in warning him away from the guy, but Klaus had ignored him in favor of the raw need to pacify the restlessness inside him.

Klaus groaned at Ben that he was such a spoilsport. It was just a cat. Ben continued giving him that look of disgruntled worry that confirmed it had nothing to do with the cat.

The cat ate the bread. Klaus stuffed the rest of his food in the pockets of his coat, picked his bag from where he left it behind some crates and went back to his original direction.

 

 

 

Klaus saw the tabby cat again - and he knew it was the same one because from up close, he could see its long scar around its right ear - when he was curled up against a dumpster. There was a one-eyed black cat with it, and damn, they were multiplying. Maybe soon Klaus would have a horde of cats following him around.

They stopped close to him, tilting their heads and meowing.

Klaus had no food, though. He couldn’t even get up and fetch some for them with how much he was trembling. He had vomited a few minutes before, but the nausea was still clamped around his throat, making his breath rattle even more against his hurting chest.

Ben’s voice was distant and frantic, but Klaus couldn’t wholly focus him in his vision. This was familiar - too familiar for him not to recognize it even under the haze slowing down his thought process.

Curled up against a dumpster in a random alleyway, not quite in a seedy area but not in a place with movement, Klaus had a moment in which he wildly wondered if maybe this would be it for him.

The cats nudged his leg.

Klaus wished he could let them know he had no food this time.

It was getting harder to breathe, and the fog in his mind became thicker.

 

 

 

When Klaus woke up in the hospital, his stomach had already been pumped, and he was on the road to recovery, according to the gentle nurse that spoke to him.

Ben watched him with downtrodden eyes from the edge of his bed, and he waited until the nurse left to speak.

“The ambulance almost didn’t reach you in time.”

This wasn’t Klaus’ first close-call, neither the second one or even third one, but he still flinched at Ben’s wavering voice. It was always worse when Ben was like this instead of the scorching anger that filled his voice as he scolded Klaus - with that one, Klaus knew better how to deal with.

“Sorry,” he whispered, his voice hoarse.

“Don’t do it again. Please, Klaus,” Ben pleaded, his eyes overflowing with so many unsaid things.

“I won’t,” Klaus promised.

Ben nodded despondently, and they both knew that Klaus would do it again. Klaus bit his dry lip, noticing how thirsty he was, and waited as Ben searched for words amid his exhaustion - because that’s how he looked, despite it being impossible for a ghost to get tired.

“The cats created a commotion in the street. I think they were trying to grab someone’s attention. A person got curious and ended up following them to you, and they called the ambulance.”

Klaus stared at him, trying to make sense of the situation.

“What?”

Ben only shrugged.

 

 

 

None of his family visited Klaus before he was released from the hospital. But hey, at least that meant no rehab forced upon him by his siblings this time.

He roamed the streets for the next few days until he found the cats, and he gave them some of the best cat food he managed to procure. Who cared that it had taken hours to find and some coercion for the guy who had it to give it to Klaus?

 

 

 

Somehow, it became a habit after that.

If Klaus didn’t find one of the cats, they found him. They weren't always hungry, and sometimes they were willing to act as blankets for Klaus. After a while of acquaintanceship - or whatever the hell he could call this thing - he even managed to scratch one of their ears. They were a bit aloof like that - sleeping by Klaus to leech off each other’s warmth and using his legs as pillows, but if he tried to rub their heads they'd slip a few feet away.

There was no horde of cats following Klaus around like he had thought it would come to. There was only those three around.

Sometimes, he’d be at someone’s apartment or in a shitty motel, and one of them would poke their tiny faces at the window. Sometimes, the men and women with him would welcome the cat, and there would be a lot of sex as they got high together, shared joints or got senseless drunk while the cats slept somewhere nearby with their bellies full. Those were the best nights.

Then, sometimes, Klaus’ company for the night would kick the cats out with curses, impatience and heavy hands. Klaus tried to convince them otherwise, but they wouldn’t give, and something would simmer underneath Klaus’ skin, unpleasant and nasty. It was always worse when the person was someone Klaus was staying with for a few days already.

Who’d have guessed that Klaus would get in fights because of cats of all things?

Ben didn’t seem to mind those nearly as much as Klaus’ other fights. He seemed to breathe a sigh of relief whenever one of the cats showed up, even if ghosts didn’t need oxygen.

A voice at the back of Klaus’ head reminded him every so often that he was already doing a terrible job in taking care of himself, so if he added three more living beings into the equation, it was bound to become a disaster - in more ways than just struggling more to get enough money for food and drugs. That was a nuisance that Klaus didn’t need for himself, no matter his history with bad choices without care for the consequences.

Well, it wasn’t like the cats were always with Klaus. They disappeared for days and weeks on end, doing whatever it was that strays did. Maybe they had other people who fed them, or perhaps they weren’t fond of attachments.

It didn’t matter much, at the end of the day. They continued showing up, for food or warmth or even just to follow him around for a while, and that was that.

Besides, Klaus couldn’t give less fucks about logic and common sense.

For once, Ben agreed with him, so maybe it wasn’t so terrible an idea after all.

 

 

 

Time passed.

Klaus added a few more ODs to his collection, as well as a shitton of disappointed expressions from Ben. He continued having days in which he’d lie in some corner without the will to move, and the cats returned again and again.

He chose names for them with Ben’s help. Toby for the tabby cat, Pon-pon for the black cat, and Boots for the grey cat.

He wasn’t sure if they began reacting to the sound of those names after a while or if it was just his mind.

Klaus kept denying his attachment to them, no matter how many times Ben gave him a fond but knowing look and how his chest warmed whenever he had some company in the form of small, fluffy blankets of fur. People could judge him, but it was just so easy interacting with them.

Sometimes, but most notably in those days in which he fell into a pit, the cats would meow and paw at him while Ben encouraged him in the background until he got up to find them all food. He’d have to find someone to pickpocket or even go dumpster diving, but later, he would lean back against a wall, popping a pill, and the cats would surround him, using Klaus as a bed, and something would be pacified inside him for a little bit longer.

 

 

 

Then Klaus saw the news about his father’s death in the small television inside an ambulance.

The following day went by in a whirlwind. Five returned, fallen out of a strange blue portal in their courtyard just in time for the funeral, looking not one day older than when he disappeared but somehow being much older. He brought with himself the news about an impending Apocalypse.

And thus began one of the craziest weeks in Klaus life.

 

 

 

He didn’t see the cats during that time. To be fair, he spent much longer than usual inside an enclosed space, and the Academy was in an area that Klaus used to avoid like the plague. It made sense that they wouldn't find him as quickly.

He planned on going to find them himself, and possibly even a guy to spend the night with and get high, but then he was kidnapped by a masked guy and taken to a dingy motel to be tortured for information on Five, all the while knowing his siblings were none the aware. It made him think of how only cats seemed to care about him - and Ben, always Ben, even if for him it might have been more of a consequence for having been stuck with Klaus as his tether to the living world. Klaus laughed and laughed, but then withdrawal started settling in as well as the pain, and it stopped being funny.

In an unexpected turn of events, he was able to escape with the help of a nice cop lady, and a briefcase he stole ended up taking him to Vietnam in 1968, where he met the love of his life, fought in a war for ten months, and lost everything.

He returned to 2019 and went through withdrawal willingly and more determined than ever so he could see Dave again. He thought he saw one of the cats on the streets, but it didn't stop, so he didn't either. He'd have time to find them later.

Then came the discovery that Vanya had powers, and as Luther locked her in a basement that made the shadows on the back of Klaus’ mind start whispering, threatening to come forth and blind him, he remembered the cats. Loneliness would grab him in an iron fist some days, harrowing, but just the fact that someone, even if that someone was three small balls of fur, was there for him, made all the difference.

Klaus didn't give up on arguing with Luther. Not long after, Five showed up in a blink, inquiring about what they were doing wasting time with an Apocalypse around the corner. Then he noticed his surroundings, saw Vanya locked, and became fury compressed into a tiny person.

With his help, they let Vanya free.

 

 

 

The Apocalypse was averted somehow.

If anyone approached Five to ask what had been the cause of the Apocalypse ultimately or what they had done to prevent it, they ended up with a scowling face and a biting dismissal as an answer. For Klaus, that was fine. He didn’t mind not knowing as long as there was no threat of it looming over them again, and perhaps that was the reason that sent Five into a spiral of equations and frustrated murmurs for the following days of the Apocalypse-that-wasn’t.

All of them, One through Seven, had flocked around the Academy during those days. Curiosity was replaced by concern as they noticed Five’s mental state, and they agreed together that they should slowly try to ease Five away from his obsession.

In the end, something seemed to click inside his head during a Family meeting in which they made plans on how to help Vanya train her rediscovered powers. He had disappeared in a flash while Allison had been talking, and he only came back hours later, a small but satisfied smile on his face.

They decided not to question him - but only after Klaus poked at him with so many jabs and jokes and Five snapped back at him that their brains were too small for them to comprehend the cause. He was sure it wasn’t happening again, and that was that.

Five finally relaxed after that.

Diego continued with his vigilante work, and Vanya had her orchestra and violin classes, but both of them alternated between staying in their place and at the Academy. Allison went in an unofficial vacation so she could recover from her injury, and as soon as her voice started coming back, she phoned Claire and had long conversations with her. Allison always left those with big smiles on her face. Luther remained at the Academy, though it was visible how much he regretted locking Vanya every time she flinched near him. He seemed to be trying to deconstruct some of his distorted views of how healthy relationships with people, siblings included, should be with Allison’s help.

Per Five’s suggestion, he began helping Vanya train her powers at the courtyard. One or two of the others tended to join in, but never all of them to avoid overwhelming her, and it seemed to be working if Vanya’s tired but happy smiles becoming more frequent meant anything.

(Klaus suspected Five had partly offered to lead her training so he could have something to focus on. Losing your long-timed addiction was hard, Klaus would know).

Through a silent agreement between all of them, they decided to try mending their relationships so they could become the family they all needed. That was harder than it should be. Rebuking with cruel words and keeping things to themselves were the settings of the default mode in which they all seemed to operate.

In the end, it wasn't like Klaus meant to keep this detail in special a secret, per se, but nobody had asked him a direct question about his life before the pre-apocalypse week, so it had never come up.

Then the cats found him two weeks after the Apocalypse-that-wasn't.

 

 

 

“Quick, catch that cat! It stole my wallet!”

Klaus startled, losing his concentration. Ben’s hand, tangible against Klaus’ palm after minutes playing patty-cake without any positive results, phased through his hand, and both of them sighed in disappointment.

Then what Diego said processed inside his mind.

“What?” he asked, looking to the side just in time to see Diego round the corner into the living room. He seemed mad, but before anything else could be said, Klaus found himself with a lapful of grey fur. A leather wallet - because of course - was dropped on his hand with a soft meow, and he was put through the scrutinization of two brown eyes.

“Boots?” Klaus asked, and the cat tilted its head to the side.

“Seems to be,” Ben said, leaning back against the sofa.

There was a grunt, and they turned to see Diego almost fall to the ground as two blurs ran through his legs. There was no doubt, then, that it was Pon-pon and Toby that jumped on the sofa beside Klaus, and all of a sudden, meows permeated the air. Something in Klaus loosened.

“Klaus, do you know these fucking cats?” Diego asked, glaring at them.

They ignored Diego completely, nudging Klaus’ arms and belly to get his attention, and well, how on earth was he going to explain this?


	2. you can count on me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no words to express how thankful I am to everyone who commented, left a kudos and bookmarked this story! I'm in midterms season, but I tried to write this as quickly as I could in what free time I had. I really have no control oops.
> 
> With that said, I hope you enjoy the last chapter of this!

Klaus had seen Diego once after the cats had wormed their way into his life.

They had met entirely by chance. Or at least Klaus thought so, but who knew when it came to Diego and his weird-ass stalking habits - because that’s what his vigilantism or whatever entailed, no matter what Diego said. It was always fun to throw at his face and watch him get more and more ticked off.

It was late at night, or more plausibly early in the morning, and Klaus had been staring at the ID from the wallet he had in his hands. He was sitting on one of the swings in an empty playground, and the cats were somewhere to his left around one of the benches. Ben was pacing near them, and Klaus tried to ignore how his form was less visible than usual, sometimes flickering.

Then someone touched Klaus’ shoulder from behind, and he screamed.

“Klaus, it’s just me! Calm down!”

And there stood Diego, in all his black-clothed glory, frowning.

“Hey, bro!” Klaus said, a laugh escaping his lips. A sneeze interrupted him. He sneezed again before he could say anything else, and then his lungs mutinied against him and tried getting out of his body through a vile coughing fit.

Diego’s frown deepened if that was even possible. Klaus could see Ben watching him still from afar, a matching frown on his face.

“Is that a black eye?”  Diego asked, suddenly, and Klaus blinked in reflex. One of his eyes wasn’t responding as it should.

“Oh. Yeah, it is.”

Diego sighed. “You got into a fight, Klaus?”

Klaus couldn’t help but laugh. “Sorta? That guy is the one who doesn’t have a sense of humor.”

Not that it had been intended as a joke when Klaus swept some money from the guy when he fell asleep after hours of sex and alcohol loose. It had only been fair since they had had an agreement, but then the guy had a fucking change of heart and said something about food and a bed being enough. Sometimes Klaus would go along with that, especially when it involved more free drugs, but this time it hadn’t, and there were three tiny beings sometimes following him around so, really, Klaus had been in the right in taking matters into his own hands.

In the end, the guy figured out what had happened sometime after Klaus left and, surprisingly, he was great at holding grudges against others even days after. Thank the fuck - and here’s something Klaus never imagined he would keep thinking - for the cats, or a black eye and a bruised stomach wouldn’t be his worst problems. One of them even got the guy’s wallet during the confusion.

Ben hadn’t even gone on his usual tirade this time. He was only fuming in silence in the distance, and Klaus wasn’t sure if that was better or worse.

Klaus ended up telling Diego some version of this when prompted, for some reason - it must have been the shitty, inconvenient cold mixed with the high; they weren’t as good a combination as Klaus had hoped.

Diego looked down at the ID and snatched it, along with the wallet.

“Hey!”

“Is this the guy you mentioned?” Diego asked, and Klaus nodded. He tipped a bit forward, but Diego helped him stay upright, making Klaus laugh.

Then Diego had stalked off, telling Klaus to wait there.

Klaus didn’t wait, even if the cats seemed to choose the playground as their home for the night - at least, Klaus had pocketed all the money that had been in the wallet, so he was cutting his losses.

On the next day, Diego showed up back again, somehow finding Klaus even if he was three blocks away from the playground. He had a darkening bruise on his cheek and some cold medicine.

Klaus accepted the medicine, half-listening to Diego tell him to take it seriously and not overuse it or sell it. It was strange how sometimes his family couldn’t seem to care enough to even show their faces to Klaus, too tired of his junkie habits, and sometimes they acted as if they still had hope in him.

“He’s worried about you,” Ben said. “And not without reason. You look like shit. Like, worst shit than usual.”

Klaus gave him a middle finger when Diego looked down to read the instructions of the medicine.

And yet, he could see the clear-as-water struggle in Diego’s expression between concern and his distaste in Klaus’ lifestyle. For a moment, it seemed like Diego was going to say more, a question shining in his eyes, but then it was gone, and they went each on their way after a few minutes.

Later, when it was already night again, Klaus’ cold got worse. Without the medicine but with a new bag of pills and some cocaine hidden deep inside his coat pockets, Klaus found his way to Diego’s place per Ben’s insistence and crashed there. Diego’s complaints then were half-assed even for Klaus’ sluggish mind.

When Klaus ran away in the middle of the night days later, his black eye was almost healed, and his cold was gone. He found the tabby cat milling around the area carrying a dead rat as a gift for Klaus, and it was as weird as it was adorable. He noticed then that Diego hadn’t encountered any of the cats during all of this time.

Ben smiled and cracked a silly joke about Klaus having dedicated bodyguards.

They continued in a random direction together.

 

 

 

Klaus’ mind took a few seconds to catch up with what was happening.

The three cats with whom Klaus had spent so much time in the past few years were there, surrounding him on the couch in his childhood home and demanding his attention. Klaus’ hand moved in autopilot to give them rubs behind their ears, leaving Diego’s wallet to fall between him and Ben.

It showed how long it had been since Klaus had last seen the cats that they let him do it for a few seconds before head-butting his hand or using their paws to move it away and resuming their hard work of hiking him or whatever it was they intended on doing.

They were here. The cats had actually found Klaus.

A soft breath escaped Klaus’ lips, leaving him light like a balloon. Fuck, he had missed them.

Toby had hopped to the back of the sofa and was making an effort to get on top of Klaus’ head, so he had to take him back down to his lap despite his meows of protest. Klaus bopped his nose and watched him sneeze with a smile that grew and grew until it took over his face.

Ben gave him a grin, and Klaus had a sudden thought about finally being able to introduce the cats to Ben.

“Klaus?” Diego asked, and oh yeah, Diego had asked him a question.

Klaus shrugged. “Sure, I do.”

“ _Sure_ ? What in this situation could warrant a _sure_?”

“Well,” Klaus drawled on, “the way these three little rascals stole from you but are surrounding me instead of running away should be a dead giveaway. I thought you’d have figured that out, mister vigilante-detective sir. But then again.” Klaus gave a dramatic gasp. “Maybe that’s why you were expelled from the police academy. Oh, but don’t cry, Dee, not all is lost! You still have time to figure out what you're good at!”

Diego rolled his eyes with an exasperated huff. “Yeah, fuck you too, bro.”

Klaus blew a kiss at him.

“Are you actually going to answer me or not?”

Klaus waved a hand. “I already did, but if you insist, Diego dear, I can tell you that strays tend to know other strays and all that, yeah? We band together sometimes, and that lasts when it happens to be beneficial for both parties.”

“You’re not a stray, Klaus.”

Klaus looked down and pet Boots' head. Toby and Pon-pon had settled down half in his lap and a half on top of each other, but Boots was still nudging him when it seemed Klaus was going to stop giving him attention. Something clenched inside Klaus' chest, and he took a deep breath. “Yeah? Didn’t feel like it a few years ago. Or even last month, really.”

Klaus wasn’t sure why he said that. There were words on the tip of his tongue, itching to be let loose, and Klaus hadn’t meant to open that gate anytime soon - it brought up all kinds of uncomfortable feelings, and Klaus would like to avoid those forever if possible, thank you very much.

Diego’s mouth opened and closed. Something seemed to weight on the lines of his expression, frustrated or sad or something entirely different that Klaus couldn’t seem to figure out. He continued talking before Diego could.

“So yeah, I met these three in the streets, and now we’re friends! Or something.”

Diego cleared his throat. “So you took them in?”

“Hmm, not exactly. It wasn’t like it was planned or anything.”

Diego stared at Klaus and the cats - and Ben, even if he probably wasn’t aware of that - for a few seconds. “Okay, let me get this straight. You _accidentally_ adopted three cats?” Diego asked in disbelief.

“Sort of. It’s nothing official, really, like I said,” Klaus said. He combed Pon-pon’s fur with his fingers, stopping at a persistent knot. “They’re sweethearts, you’ll love them. Always kept me company out at the streets.”

Klaus didn’t say how they kept him from freezing more than a few times. He also avoided mentioning how they’re what kept him alive in the last few years. The cats and Ben, of course. Always Ben.

He noticed Ben’s heavy look from the corner of his eyes, and he had a feeling Ben knew exactly what he had left unsaid.

“Oh. And you, uh, you taught them how to steal?”

“I helped them hone their survival ability, there’s a difference,” Klaus said matter-of-factly. “They’re brilliant, but they could use some tips.”

“You didn’t hone anything,” Ben said, putting his arm on the backrest of the couch and leaning his head against his hand. “They stole some girl’s wallet so you could get them food one day and you just encouraged them to keep doing it. And they didn’t even obey you, they just did it whenever they felt like it.”

Klaus shushed Ben. “That counts as honing, okay?”

Diego looked a funny mix between awkward and amused. “Ben disagrees with you.”

It wasn’t even said as a question, the audacity.

(It was still weird to see his siblings not ignore him whenever he mentioned Ben, and actually acknowledge it as a real thing. The wonders of a family meeting in which Klaus made him visible for a few seconds.)

“I’ll have you know Ben deeply agrees with me. He was even complimenting my teaching abilities because of course they’re that great, thank you, Benny.”

“No, I wasn’t. You suck at teaching anything,” Ben said just as Diego snorted and agreed with Klaus with sarcasm dripping from his words.

Klaus gaped at them. “Hey! Excuse you two.”

Boots chose that moment to stand up on his back legs and lean his front paws against Klaus’ chest, reaching up to lick Klaus’ cheek. It tickled.

“Boots was always a quick learner,” Klaus added just because he could. He gave a quick scratch under Boots’ chin to congratulate him for his witty-thinking in stealing Diego’s wallet - it was brilliant, and he’d laugh at it later when he was less giddy.

“Right.” Diego shook his head. “Well, you should get away from that nitty little habit of theirs.”

“What?”

“I mean, you're staying in the Academy nowadays, and you told me you were getting clean, right? So you don’t need cats to help you get money. It’s actually better to stay away from any sort of temptation.”

The serene atmosphere crashed around Klaus.

Maybe it wasn’t Diego’s intention - or perhaps it was, how would Klaus know when they had spent around a month together after years of the bare minimum of interactions? - but Klaus heard the implication that the cats should leave loud and clear.

A familiar ugly simmering prickled Klaus’ skin. Voices echoed in his ears, spitting words in disdain and in dismissal of the cats, and that wouldn’t do, it fucking wouldn’t do because - because these cats were there for him when almost no one else was. They helped him in so many ways other than with money, and they cared enough about him to fucking search him throughout the goddamn city, even going to places they had never seen Klaus in before, and, what, he was meant to kick them out because they weren’t  _useful anymore? Because they were connected to Klaus’ past of drugs?_

(A flash of one of his many overdoses and the white walls of a hospital from after crossed his mind. Toby and Pon-pon had been his life-line then, and his family didn’t even deem it worth it enough to show up).

“Klaus-” Ben began to say, but Klaus ignored him and threw Diego’s wallet back at him. It hit him on the chest, and Diego almost didn’t catch it before it fell to the ground.

“Klaus?” Diego asked. He gave a step forward but stopped at Klaus’ heated glare.

“Fuck you, Diego,” Klaus said, and maybe he was unreasonable, but he couldn’t care less at the moment.

His family wasn’t going to take this away from him.

(No more. He deserved to keep one nice thing with him, right? After Dave-)

Klaus stormed off, holding Boots when he tried to climb to his shoulders and with Toby and Pon-pon at his heels.

 

 

 

Klaus stalked to his room, being silent for once.

Toby and Pon-pon didn’t walk ahead of him or even try to sneak away to explore another room as they would when first entering a new place - they were smart and cautious, but they also always had a strange knack in noticing when Klaus’ nerves were on edge.

It rattled him as much as it was a relief because this was them being serious, and was this situation really that serious?

Klaus had probably overreacted, right?

But with Dave in his mind, the threat of the cats being unwelcome and rejected once again, and the sight of dark foliage mingling in his view, he couldn’t get air enough to think.

He slid to the ground as soon as the door closed behind him. The cats jumped on him, and Ben crouched in front of him. Klaus teetered on a dark cliff with the sound of meows and Ben’s soft _“breathe”_ resounding inside his head.

 

 

 

The first time Klaus had seen all three cats together had been when one of them had gotten hurt.

There was a pile of garbage on the ground, and a few crates were turned on their side. It barely took Klaus a second to recognize the scar behind the tabby cat’s ear and the dirty white feet of the grey cat. They were meowing nonstop beside the pile, the sound keen and heartbreaking.

“Hey, what do you think happened?” Klaus asked Ben. The two cats had noticed him by then, and Klaus found himself approaching them.

Ben inspected the pile of garbage from the side. He let out a strangled noise. “Klaus, come here!”

“What?”

“There’s another cat stuck under some boxes. I think it’s hurt.”

Klaus rushed over there. From Ben’s position, he could see a small black paw.

The next few hours were a blur of motion. Somehow, he got the cat out from under the pile without anything crashing on him, and with the help of a nice old lady who happened to pass by the other side of the street, they took it to the closest vet.

The old lady didn’t have enough money to pay the vet, she admitted with regretful eyes after the price was said. Without the guarantee of the full payment, the vet couldn't begin the cat's treatment.

Klaus glanced between the cat and its two friends, who ended up waiting outside. A sudden burst of emotion climbed his throat, and Klaus offered every last coin he had been saving up to help pay. It was barely enough to pay for the expenses.

That’s how Klaus found himself later that day with a lapful of a sleeping black cat with two bandaged legs and a side of a tabby cat and a grey cat lying against him, but with no money.

He had taken his last four pills earlier that day.

Klaus thrummed his fingers against his leg - he didn’t have the heart to leave them by themselves so soon when one of their own was still too out of it, goddammit. Their sharp panic was too evident inside his mind, making something in his chest tighten.

His last dosage should last him until the beginning of the next day. It should be okay, right?

Ben smiled at him, proud for some reason.

Klaus dreamed of the mausoleum that night, and he woke up gasping and shivering. He blindly reached out, and his hands stumbled upon the cats still around him. Klaus watched, a bit disconnected, as the grey cat got up and curled up closer to him.

The feel of the cats’ knotted fur under his fingers was soothing, familiar. With Ben’s soft chatter to distract him in the background, Klaus found himself getting calmer again. He was able to fall into sleep not long after.

The next day, he found someone to pickpocket and got just enough to replenish his reserves once more before returning to the cats. He had half a mind to wonder if maybe he was getting too attached to random stray cats before he dismissed it as a passing thing.

 

 

 

Klaus had no idea how he was going to keep his cats hidden.

They weren’t his to keep, mind you. They were their own, and Klaus was sure they’d never be satisfied in staying in the same enclosed space for an extended period, even if the Academy was huge and had enough rooms to keep them occupied for a while. Life out at the streets was hard, there was no questioning it, but there was also absolute freedom that accompanied it, and Boots, Toby and Pon-pon, with their free-spirited ways, probably wouldn't take well to having that freedom stripped away.

It was improbable, then, that they would land definitely at the Academy - hell, even Klaus wasn’t sure how long he would be staying here.

That was fine, though. Klaus didn’t want to force a fancy cage disguised as a home upon them. What he wanted - and that wasn't a new thought, but fuck, this had to be the first time it would even be within the realm of possibility - was to provide them with a comfortable and cozy roof to stay underneath whenever they needed. A place ready to welcome them with open arms and _that wouldn’t give them bullshit for being loud and getting fur everywhere._

This wasn’t really Klaus’ home, but without his father around to pester them anymore, would it be too much for Klaus to want to have this much for some time?

Klaus groaned and let himself fall on his bed, running his hands up his face and through his hair.

“You know Diego didn’t mean it like that, right?” Ben asked.

Klaus took a deep breath as he watched Boots, Pon-pon and Toby get familiarized with his room. They pawed at things and got distracted with his string lights before Pon-pon gave up on it and walked over him, stepping on his face without mercy, and curled up on top of Klaus’ chest to take a nap while the other two fought over the ball of yarn.

“Didn’t he? I think he was clear in his opinion,” Klaus said, nudging Pon-pon a bit to the side so her tail wouldn’t get in his face. She meowed back at him in protest, and Ben sighed.

“At least talk to him about it,” Ben said. He was perched on the edge of the bed, being careful to avoid Toby and Boots’ path of chaos. “Tell him how important they are to you. I’m sure he and the others won’t mind it if you explain it’s not just for the money and drugs.”

“He shouldn’t have thought that anyway.” Klaus huffed.

“You did say that strays stick together when it favors both sides.”

Klaus groaned. “Well, yeah, but I didn’t mean it so literally. Nothing was ever planned when it came to these three.”

“I know,” Ben said softly.

Silence reigned in the room for a while. Klaus tried to listen for footsteps, but there seemed to be no one in the hallway.

 

 

 

Klaus spat out a bit of fur after Pon-pon’s tail waved on his face like a duster. He cursed Ben when he laughed at him, and he pushed Pon-pon further away from him on the bed, her new favorite place it seemed. He glared back at her when she hissed at him.

It was a bit later. Klaus had gone to fetch bowls of water and food, and he noticed the house was mostly empty - he remembered Allison and Luther going out earlier, talking about buying a trinket that reminded Allison of Claire, and Diego had been supposed to accompany Five and Vanya in training out in a deserted street a bit further away from the city. He had probably been going there when Boots stole his wallet.

He wondered what Diego was planning on doing about the cats. Maybe Klaus should go talk with him. Soon.

“You’re a menace to society,” Klaus whispered to Pon-pon, using a finger to softly caress her head.

“I think they missed you just as much,” Ben said with a laugh.

“I bet they’ll love you, Benny. I can already see it, you're going to plot against me together."

“Wait, what?” Ben asked in a breath. There was something fragile in his eyes, and Klaus’ chest felt tighter.

“What, you thought now that I’m able to make you tangible, I wouldn’t make them hound you? It’s payback, you see, for all the times you laughed when I almost suffocated in cat fur.”

Ben’s gaze seemed lost for a moment. “...ah. Well, that wouldn’t be so bad.”

“You’ll regret your words,” Klaus said, voice hoarse.

There was a knock on the door.

Klaus started, cursing. Before he could work himself into a panic, Five flashed into the room. Vanya opened the door and scrambled inside, calling for Five in an admonishing tone only for her eyes to widen when she caught sight of Pon-pon on the bed by Klaus.

"He's still here," Five said. He looked Klaus up and down, analytical.

"Hey! Don't talk as if I'm not right in front of you."

“Diego wasn’t making the this up,” Vanya murmured, staring at Boots in wonder as he approached her with caution.

Five snorted, but his eyes were considering. “Diego doesn't have the imagination to make that story up.”

“Wow, thanks so fucking much, Five,” Diego said, coming up from behind Vanya. He didn’t look nearly as winded as he did after accompanying one of Vanya’s training session. Diego looked at Klaus. “We need to talk, buddy.”

Klaus exchanged a glance with Ben.

“Yeah, no, thank you.”

 

 

 

In the end, it wasn’t up to Klaus.

He tried sneaking away, but it was harder than he imagined when there were three siblings on the way. The cats noticed something was going on and started meowing, and the situation escalated until they were all in the kitchen.

Klaus nursed a mug with hot chocolate and avoided everyone’s eyes. He heard as Diego talked, with Five adding a comment sometimes and Vanya agreeing in some parts despite her apparent hesitance. Then it became clear what this was about.

Klaus gaped at them. “You guys can’t seriously think I’m relapsing.”

“We don’t. Not now, at least,” Vanya said gently. She looked at Boots, who was sitting on the table and staring right back at her. “But the temptation might be too much with them around.”

“Of course not! I won’t relapse,” Klaus said before pausing when he remembered the persistent itch still underneath his skin. Dave’s face flashed inside his mind, and with it, the remembrance that Klaus had failed so far to make his ghost appear. He swallowed, pretending it didn't seem like there was a ball of broken knives lodged inside his throat all of a sudden. “Well, not because of them, at least.”

“How can you be sure?” Diego asked. “The memories-”

“Because I used the money they got to buy food,” Klaus snapped. His mug clacked against the table with a loud noise. “For them and some for me. It wasn’t a lot, anyway, so I found other ways to get drugs, okay?”

“That sounds counterproductive.” Five crossed his arms.

“Like I told Diego, the thing with them wasn’t something official,” Klaus said with a groan. “They just showed up one day, and I kept meeting them after that. It was hard ignoring them, so if they got money, it helped me, and in return, I helped them as well. Not counterproductive at all.”

It was an unfair description of that time, Klaus knew. There had been much more than that, but the words were choked inside his throat.

“So they figured out a pattern and kept bringing you money. Definitely an easier way to get nourishment than searching through garbage,” Five added, nodding to himself. He eyed Pon-pon and Toby as they jumped on the table as well.

“Definitely,” Klaus said. Something flashed in Five’s eyes, but Diego spoke before he could.

“Look, man, I’m sorry about before. You seem to actually like these cats, but can you blame us for being worried? If they keep doing that now, can you guarantee it won’t tempt you to go buy drugs?”

Klaus sighed. “What’s up with this interrogation all of a sudden? They’re just cats.”

“Tell them, Klaus. Of course they’ll think they’re only cats if you don’t explain,” Ben said. He was sitting on the edge of the counter, leaning forward and looking for all intents like he wanted to blurt out what Klaus was avoiding on saying.

“Why bother, Ben?” Klaus asked.

“Because things are different now. They’ll listen.”

“Oh, just like Luther did?”

Klaus regretted saying that as soon as the words were out in the open. Ben recoiled like he had been struck, his mouth pressing in a thin line.

“What about Luther?” Five asked, eyes sharp before Klaus could apologize to Ben. Five glanced between Klaus and the general area of the counter Ben was sitting in. “What did Ben say?”

“Nothing,” Klaus said. “I mean, he said a lot, but nothing pertinent to this conversation.”

Diego looked at the ceiling for a moment.

“We’re just worried about you, Klaus,” he repeated, and Vanya nodded along. “You need to talk to us.”

And yeah, Klaus could see it in the way Vanya was biting her lips, her stance nervous, and how Diego had that weighted expression in his face, and even how Five was attentively listening and cataloging information instead of brushing it all off. It was a weird experience to see all of that and associate it with himself - to think that they were worried about him, and not in the usual way in which they were more exhausted than anything, with their hopes in Klaus drained.

Sure, he hadn’t forgotten how they were trying to mend their bonds after the Apocalypse-that-wasn’t, but Klaus was Klaus. When had any actions of the actions their family took genuinely taken him into account?

So maybe it wasn’t fair, but Klaus started laughing.

“Right, of course,” he said, waving a hand. “You’re worried. About me. And you want lil’ old me to talk about my problems just because the cats that were the reason why I remembered to eat with enough frequency showed up. All because of some cats, but when I ODed and ended up in the hospital the last few times it wasn’t enough.”

His siblings flinched.

“Klaus-” Vanya began.

“Or, or when I was kidnapped and tortured for hours by those two masked guys who were after Five, but nah, nobody cared to ask me about it when I came back. I fought in a war in that meanwhile, so it should’ve been even more of a reason to talk to me, right? But of course not, because cats that stole for me sometimes are more of a reason for my siblings to worry, no matter what I say.”

He giggled and ran a hand through his hair. He only noticed his voice had been taking on a hysterical note when Boots walked into his arms and snuggled against his neck, meowing.

Klaus sucked in a breath, noticing how it got stuck in his throat, and buried his face on Boots’ fur.

“Shit,” he murmured. He felt Toby and Pon-pon surrounding him, and he reached a hand out and tangled his fingers against one of their furs, grounding himself. The back of his eyes was burning.

“Klaus,” Vanya said. Her voice wavered. “What do you mean by all that?”

“S-so that’s why you went to t-that veteran’s bar? B-but how could you have fought in a w-w-war? It’s just- h-how is that possible?” Diego asked.

“He time-traveled,” Five explained. Klaus heard another mug being set on the table. “Using the briefcase Hazel and Cha-Cha foolishly left out in the open.” He sighed. “But I had no idea you had gone to war.”

“He-what?”

“Time-traveled?!”

“Which one?” Five asked, his voice sharper than the others’.

Klaus took a deep breath and raised his head. “Vietnam, 1968.”

There was a chorus of exclamations and curses.

 

 

 

Klaus didn’t want to talk, but he found the words flowed with ease when he started. He talked about Vietnam and Dave, about the kidnapping and the ghosts he could see around the assassins as he went through withdrawal, and even a bit about his time before their father’s funeral. Diego, Vanya, and Five listened to him in varying states of horror, shock, and consternation.

“So, the cats…?” Diego asked.

Klaus shrugged. “They’ve been with me for a while. It was never just the money - that came later, actually. I don’t know, I guess they just kept Ben and me company. It was a bit less lonely with them there, and they, uh, they kept me sane. They helped bring an ambulance once when I overdosed, so you can say they also kept me, you know, alive, even if some of the credit for that goes to Ben.”

He stopped talking after that, and there was a long moment of silence in the kitchen. He felt foolish all of a sudden. Why did he say so much?

Then Ben sighed and murmured a soft “there you go” just as Vanya suddenly hugged him.

“I had no idea, Klaus. I should’ve, I should’ve-” Vanya said, hiccuping. Something warm fell against Klaus’ neck as she squeezed him closer, and he felt something crumble inside him. The burning on the back of his eyes came back with a vengeance, spilling, and blurring his vision.

Klaus hid his face against Vanya, his arms leaving the cats and going around her. “It’s okay.”

“No, it’s not. I was so caught up in my own problems that I didn’t even-” Vanya shook her head against Klaus. “I’m so sorry.”

Vanya had never been one for great demonstrations of emotions, but after the pills, she had been overflowing with them without any idea of how to deal with it to the point she often lost her words. Klaus could understand her, in a way.

"Your problems are important too, Vanya," Klaus said. "We were all caught up in our own things, I guess."

Vanya shook her head. "But it still wasn't right."

A hand fell on his shoulder, and Klaus looked up to see Five looking at him with the softest expression Klaus had seen on his face in a long time. It was sorrowful and regretful in equal measures.

“I have to agree with Vanya. I noticed the signs, but I still didn’t ask where you had gone to and what had happened. When I was living in the Apocalypse,” Five stopped to take a deep breath, and Klaus could see this was hard on him as well, “one of the things that kept me going forward was the thought of making it back to all of you. Yet, when I finally did it, I ended up too caught up over the fact that we only had eight days before the end of everything that I ignored all of you.”

“It was important, Five-o,” Klaus croaked. “None of us were very cooperative that week.”

Five nodded. “That’s true, and yes, it was important,” he conceded. “But it still wasn’t the right thing to do. I should’ve paid better attention to all of you. Taken care of you, like I was supposed to. Maybe then...” Five trailed off, his eyes flitting briefly to Vanya. “So I’m… I’m-”

Klaus pushed Vanya away delicately and offered a hand to Five. Vanya seemed to catch on what he was trying to do and offered a hand to him as well.

Five looked at their hands like they were aliens, but he took them after a few seconds. They pulled him closer and surrounded him with their arms before he could protest. Five grunted, tensing up, but then his hand rose up to rest against Klaus back, hesitant before he relaxed into the hug.

Another pair of arms surrounded them from the other side, and Diego’s head found its way to meet theirs in the center. Ben floated closer to them, and Klaus could see his hands hovering over his shoulder, and even if he couldn’t feel Ben’s touch, he could see his warm smile.

“I’m sorry too, Klaus, for today and for before,” Diego said, his voice heavy with emotion. “I jumped to conclusions, but I should’ve trusted you.”

Klaus nodded. It was hard opening his mouth then. “I might still need help. With the drugs. Not because of the cats, but…”

“Of course,” Diego said, and Klaus could feel Vanya and Five nodding. “We can think of what to do together.”

Diego tightened his hold on them before releasing them with a sigh. “Shit. We all suck at being a family.”

“We do,” Vanya agreed with a sad laugh. They broke their hug when Five began squirming out, but she still squeezed Klaus’ arm and sent him a look that was flooded with many unsaid things. “We’re all too broken.”

“But we can still fix things between us,” Five corrected her. “As long as we keep trying.”

“That’s it,” Ben said. His eyes sparkled with satisfaction. “See, Klaus?”

Klaus ran a hand over his eyes, trying to get rid of the last rebel tears insisting on falling. The cats had jumped to the ground when his siblings had congregated around Klaus, but he could feel them by his feet.

“And,” Five added, clearing his throat. “You could join Vanya and me in training more times. I might be able to help you with the problems you're having if you let me try to better understand how your power works.”

Klaus had no idea what to do with all of this. His chest felt full and warm in a way he never expected it to feel because of his siblings, and his head was spinning.

“Thank you,” he whispered because that was the most his voice could deal with at the moment.

Five nodded, a rare but sincere small smile on his face. Ben gave him a knowing look.

Diego nudged his shoulder. “What do you say about some waffles now? We could all use something to cheer us up, huh? Then we could go buy some proper cat food and bowls and whatever else it’s needed.”

Klaus grinned.

Later, he would probably have to explain the whole situation to Allison and Luther, and that’d be another fun round of emotions Klaus wasn’t looking forward to. It’d only be fair to not keep them in the dark, and if Toby, Boots, and Pon-pon would be staying, it’d be good for them to understand where they came from. And maybe, that conversation would end up with Klaus telling some things he left out this time, like his short encounter with God in consequence of him going after Luther in that nightclub. After his siblings’ reaction this afternoon to some of Klaus’ stories, it might’ve been for the best that he left that part out.

But for now, Klaus basked in the show of warmth from his siblings and at the seed of hope that said things would get better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't delve into some subjects in here because I thought this fic wasn't the place for that. That also goes for why there's only a few characters here - I wanted to explore some of their reactions away from the usual ones we read when everyone's there listening and everything is left out in the open. I hope it wasn't disappointing.
> 
> I kinda want to write more about Klaus and these cats haha maybe more stuff from before the apocalypse or some from after this story, but I'm not sure yet. Would you all be interested in that?
> 
> This fic was inspired by the prompts “I may have accidentally sort of adopted five cats” and “Quick catch that cat it stole my wallet!". I found them somewhere in tumblr.
> 
> Thanks for reading! Thoughts? ;)


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